It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one. Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen. - Jerome K. Jerome

It was widely thought to be a composite, a suspicion Farid confirmed by comparing the angles of light on their faces.

But he didn't stop there. He developed a computer program that analyzes light and pixels carefully enough for him to debunk other, more serious photo distortions - like an alleged photo of a bombed Lebanese city where thicker smoke had been added to the sky.

Farid describes himself as an "accidental scientist," which is the kind of relaxed attitude that Nova is after when it tells skeptical viewers, "Wait, wait, stay tuned. This isn't all about astrophysics."

Some of it, of course, is about astrophysics. The opening segment documents the search by scientists for "dark matter," an unseen form of matter that apparently affects the motion of the whole universe.

"Nova" treats the hunt for dark matter like a classic mystery with a fascinating, offbeat cast. Scientists work in a lab a half-mile underground so their search for this elusive matter is less likely to be compromised by unseen things zipping in from space.

Host Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist himself, downshifts to populist terms as he acknowledges with some amusement that devoting your life to the search for the unseen is an unusual career choice.